Agriculture representatives from across the industry expressed nervousness at the Trump administration's current trade policy, saying that the potential for a trade war from reciprocal tariffs would devastate American farmers.
Apparel importers and retailers don't have much favor in this administration, but groups representing their interests tried to appeal to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's logical side in comments requested by the agency on the reciprocal tariffs slated for April 2. The trade group representing the greatly diminished domestic textile and apparel industry, in contrast, said reciprocal tariffs could be used to recoup $100 billion in annual lost sales.
Project 2025 recommends combining CBP's Office of Trade and Office of Trade Relations with the Office of Field Operations in order to “achieve streamlined operations and increase OT’s capacity and capability by leveraging OFO’s expansive resources,” according to the Project 2025 chapter on its recommendations for DHS.
The European Commission will delay its first wave of retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. from April 1 until mid-April, commission spokesperson Olof Gill said in a statement March 20. Gill said the tariffs were delayed to "align the timing" of the EU's two sets of retaliatory actions announced last month (see 2503120042).
National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones Chair Shannon Fura, a founder of Chicago law firm Page Fura, said the language in President Donald Trump's recent executive orders creating new tariffs, which say that goods must pay tariffs before entering FTZs, "are handcuffing some of the benefits" that FTZs are designed to provide.
Nearly 750 organizations and businesses gave input to the administration on trade barriers or subsidies that prevent them from reaching their sales potential.
Even Flexport's advisors are stumped over how exactly to declare a value for the aluminum or steel content for affected derivative products (see 2503140059), based on comments made during a webinar hosted by the company March 18.
Associations' views diverged widely on the wisdom of codifying a modified Type 86 process and tweaking the clear-from-the-manifest process for de minimis entries. Groups also disagreed on CBP's proposals for what new data should be submitted. The agency received 95 comments on its proposal, though dozens were from individuals and didn't make substantive suggestions. Some associations and companies addressed both this proposed rule and the one that would carve out sections 301 and 232 goods from de minimis. The comment period for that rule closes March 24.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offered some clarity on the promised April 2 tariffs but, when pressed, didn't elaborate on vital details. He said that reciprocal tariffs would take the form of a number that the Trump administration "believe[s] represents their tariffs," but said he wasn't sure if tariffs would layer on top of Section 232 tariffs.
Correction: Republicans voted in the House to say that there will be no more calendar days in the rest of this session of Congress, through the end of 2025, in a procedural gambit directly blocking the ability of critics of President Donald Trump's tariffs on Canada and Mexico to challenge that policy (see 2503110049).